The Unforgivable Sin in Silicon Valley: Being Gen-XThis is becoming a bigger and bigger issue, particularly in the tech industry where trendy is everything.

People would be rightly shocked if a job description for a high-tech position said: "whites and South Asians only" or "women need not apply." They'd be shocked not because racism and sexism aren't rampant in these firms, but because the company would be explicitly acknowledging that the racism and the sexism exists. However, whilst they're sensitive about being outwardly racist and sexist, high tech firms are total fine with discriminating against one type of job candidate: anyone born before 1985.

ABILITY IS AGELESSThe bedrock on which tech is built was created by people who are now retired or who are within ten years of retirement. They are also the source of most truly innovative ideas currently. Trendy is one thing, but solid ideas are another. Think MySpace for an example of trendy. Think the Unix operating system (developed in the 1960s and still the backbone upon which computation and communication systems work) for an example of a solid idea.

There are many forms that age discrimination can take and discrimination in the workplace is just one, but probably the most important. As people live longer and longer lives, they will need to stay employed for longer and longer. However, age discrimination in social media and on video sharing sites is rampant. Algorithms which promote videos are geared towards younger viewers and work against older content contributers. Sooner or later someone is going to file a class action lawsuit against YouTube or Facebook in order to create a more level playing field which does not discriminate based on age.

Sometimes people are forced to retire. Other times supervisors sort of push the issue through the use of negative evaluations. There can even be pressure from other employees who want to move up the ladder to see a position vacated. And then there are those who hope to see a job open up for a friend or family member. There are lots of underlying motivations for age discrimination and therein lies the problem and that's why the media distracts by highlighting problems which don't actually exist, but which emotionally resonate with a portion of the population.

Senior workers tend to get paid more than workers who have been around for fewer years. So, part of the motivation for eliminating senior workers is cost savings. Corporate America is all about cost savings and so our corporate media produces propaganda which makes it easier for the population at large to ignore the problem of age discrimination. It's a systemic issue far more insidious than any other form of discrimination.

I've never met a person who was the legitimate victim of racial or gender discrimination, but I know of many cases of age discrimination. Like Crusty said, it's the white elephant in the room that nobody in the news media talks about. They talk up fake forms of discrimination all the time, but the one form of discrimination that actually does exist rarely gets mentioned!

You all make a good point. The media really pushes the idea that people are discriminated against on the basis of race and gender, but you rarely hear about age discrimination in the media. And that flies in the face of reality. I've heard of dozens of legitimate cases of age discrimination, but have never once met anyone who was legitimately a victim of race or gender discrimination. The corporate media seems to be working overtime to shape perception by hyping things that barely exist and ignoring things which are real and urgent problems. It's mind-blowing that this is allowed to happen!

shadylady: It's almost as if the media is on purpose trying to distract attention away from the real problem by hyping non-problems. But why? What does the media have against older people? Are they not good enough consumers? It seems like there must be some kind of agenda. It's obvious that they're trying to distort reality, but it's not clear why. Is it just an experiment to see what they can get away with? Or are they honing their skills for something bigger?